HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) women's basketball team suffered a hard-fought 83-66 exhibition road loss to NCAA Division I opponent the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Golden Eagles on Saturday afternoon in Reed Green Coliseum.
SHC held a 14-13 lead after the first quarter, but the depth of the Golden Eagles bench began to prove itself against their lower division foe late in the second stanza, as USM built out a 27-42 advantage at halftime. The Badgers kept the score within shouting distance for most of the second half, staying within 11 to 15 points of USM, but the home team had too many horses that they used to pull out to a 71-52 lead with 4:31 remaining in the contest.
Junior forward
Katie Krout of Tuscaloosa scored a team-high 21 points with eight rebounds and two blocked shots as senior forward
Tiffany Valentine of Houston, Texas, pulled in nine rebounds with 15 points. Freshman guard
Lindi DeBilzan from Lexington, Ky., made her presence known with three blocked shots, six points and four assists.
Tyashia Bostick, a freshman from Charleston, S.C., was 4-of-5 from the field for nine points with a steal and five rebounds.
As a team, SHC shot 46.6% (27-58) on the night, but suffered from a 14.3% (2-14) performance from 3-point distance and lost 30 turnovers against 16 steals by the Eagle defense. The Badgers only connected on 58.8% (10-17) of their free throws while USM out rebounded them 44-40 under the boards.
Shonte Hailes led three Eagles in reaching double-digit scoring with 22 points as USM shot 42.1% (32-76) from the field including 30% (6-20) from 3-point range. The Eagles completed 59.1% (13-22) of their free throws and lost 18 turnovers to five steals by SHC.
Spring Hill begins regular season play on Friday at 6 p.m. (eastern) at the Bob Martinez Athletics Center in Tampa, Fla., at the Opening Weekend Spartan Crossover Tournament versus the host University of Tampa Spartans.
